2. INTRODUCTION –
The Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras were inscribed on
the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995, the first-ever property to be
included in the cultural landscape category of the World Heritage List.
Historical description –
The rice terraces of the Cordilleras are one of the few
monuments in the Philippines that show no evidence of having been
influenced by colonial cultures. Owing to the difficult terrain, the Cordillera
tribes are among the few peoples of the Philippines who have successfully
resisted any foreign domination and have preserved their authentic tribal
culture. The history of the terraces is intertwined with that of its people,
their culture, and their traditional practices.
THE RICE TERRACES OF THE PHILIPPINE CORDILLERAS
3. THE RICE TERRACES OF THE PHILIPPINE CORDILLERAS
LOCATION –
INFORMATION - The Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras are
a World Heritage Site consisting of a complex of rice terraces on the
island of Luzon in the Philippines. They were inscribed on the UNESCO
World Heritage List in 1995, the first-ever property to be included in
the cultural landscape category of the World Heritage List.
HISTORICAL DESCRIPTION
The rice terraces of the Cordilleras are one of the few monuments in the
Philippines that show no evidence of having been influenced by colonial
cultures. Owing to the difficult terrain, the Cordillera tribes are among the few
peoples of the Philippines who have successfully resisted any foreign
domination and have preserved their authentic tribal culture. The history of
the terraces is intertwined with that of its people, their culture, and their
traditional practices.
Apart from the idjang stone-fortresses of the Ivatan of the Batanes, the
terraces, which spread over five present-day provinces, are the only other
form of surviving stone construction from the pre-colonial period. The
Philippines alone among south-east Asian cultures is a largely wood-based
one: unlike Cambodia, Indonesia, or Thailand, for example, in the
Philippines both domestic buildings and ritual structures such as temples and
shrines were all built in wood, a tradition that has survived in the terrace
hamlets.
Ifugao, Cordillera Administrative
Region, Luzon, Philippines
4. Cordillera Rice Terraces Officially On the World Heritage List –
•Batad Rice Terraces (in Banaue, Ifugao)
•Bangaan Rice Terraces (in Banaue, Ifugao)
•Mayoyao Rice Terraces (in Mayoyao, Ifugao)
•Hungduan Rice Terraces (in Hungduan, Ifugao)
•Nagacadan Rice Terraces (in Kiangan, Ifugao)
Batad Rice Terraces close-up view Nagacadan Rice Terraces
Location of Rice Terraces of the Philippine
LUZON
The Ifugao Rice Terraces epitomize the absolute blending of the physical, socio-cultural,
economic, religious, and political environment. Indeed, it is a living cultural landscape of
unparalleled beauty.
5. The maintenance of the living rice terraces reflects a primarily cooperative approach of the whole community which is based
on detailed knowledge of the rich diversity of biological resources existing in the Ifugao agro-ecosystem, a finely tuned annual
system respecting lunar cycles, zoning and planning, extensive soil conservation, mastery of a most complex pest control
regime based on the processing of a variety of herbs, accompanied by religious rituals.
Criterion (iii): The rice terraces are a dramatic testimony to a community's sustainable and primarily communal system of rice
production, based on harvesting water from the forest clad mountain tops and creating stone terraces and ponds, a system
that has survived for two millennia.
Criterion (iv): The rice terraces are a memorial to the history and labour of more than a thousand generations of small-scale
farmers who, working together as a community, have created a landscape based on a delicate and sustainable use of natural
resources.
Criterion (v): The rice terraces are an outstanding example of land-use that resulted from a harmonious interaction between
people and its environment which has produced a steep terraced landscape of great aesthetic beauty, now vulnerable to
social and economic changes.
6. The inscribed terrace clusters continue to be worked and maintained in the traditional manner although other nearby terraces
have been abandoned or have temporarily fallen out of use due to changes in climate and rainfall patterns in the terraces’
mountain watershed. In some villages, Christianization in the 1950s affected the performance of tribal practices and rituals
that were essential in maintaining the human commitment that balances nature and man in the landscape; today, tribal
practices coexist with Christianity. However, the terraced landscape is highly vulnerable because the social equilibrium that
existed in the rice terraces for the past two millennia has become profoundly threatened by technological and evolutionary
changes. Rural-to-urban migration processes limit the necessary agricultural workforce to maintain the extensive area of
terraces and climate change has recently impinged on the property resulting in streams drying out, while massive earthquakes
have altered locations of water sources and caused terrace dams to move and water distribution systems re-routed.
These factors pose significant challenges that could be addressed through the sustained implementation of conservation and
management actions.
INTEGRITY
AUTHENTICI
TY
The Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras are authentic in form, character, and function as a direct result of the 2000 year-old
and continuously maintained regime that balances climatic, geographical, ecological, agronomic, ethnographic, religious, social,
economic, political and other factors. Through ritual practices, chants and symbols which emphasize ecological balance, the
Ifugao community has maintained the intactness of the terraces’ traditional management system over this long period of time,
ensuring the authenticity of both the original landscape engineering and the traditional wet-rice agriculture. Once this balance is
disturbed the whole system begins to collapse, but so long as they all operate together harmoniously, as they have over two
millennia, the authenticity is total.
Being a living cultural landscape, evolutionary changes continuously fine-tune and adapt the cultural response of the terraces’
owners and inhabitants in response to changing climatic, social, political and economic conditions. However, the fact that the Ifugao
community continues to occupy, use and maintain their ancestral lands in the age-old traditional manner ensures appreciation and
awareness of the enduring value of these traditional practices which continue to sustain them.
Nevertheless the reduction in the workforce and other social and environmental factors, including changes in management of the
watershed forests, makes this traditional system and thus the overall balance highly vulnerable and requires sustained
7. PRESERVATION
The Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras were named as a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO World Heritage
Centre in 1995. It has passed by UNESCO's standards[8] due to the blending of the physical, socio-cultural, economic,
religious, and political environment as a living cultural landscape. In 2000, the site was inscribed as one of the most
endangered cultural sites in the world by World Monuments Fund but was taken off in 2001.
The Ifugao Rice Terraces have also been inscribed in the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2001 as the dangers of
deforestation and climate change threatens to destroy the terraces. Another contributing factor
is globalization where the younger generations of the Ifugaos have recently had the opportunity to gain access to
media and education, most of the younger Ifugaos have opted to come to the capital for work instead of the
traditional farming tradition. The Philippines sought danger listing as a way to raise national and international
support and cooperation in the preservation of the heritage site. Critic W.S. Logan described the flight of locals from
the land as an example of heritage designations created by bureaucrats and policy makers rather than local
communities
The rice terraces were listed as one of the most
endangered monuments in the world by World
Monuments Fund in the 2010 World Monuments Watch,
along with the Santa Maria Church and San Sebastian
Church. All of the sites were taken off the list in 2011 after
the passage of the National Cultural Heritage Act.[28]
In 2012, UNESCO has removed the Rice Terraces from
the list of sites in danger in recognition of the success of
the Philippines in improving its conservation.
